Despite privacy challenges, Facebook earns record profits

Facebook, the social media giant saw a rise in the stock of 12 per cent after earning a record revenue of $16.91 billion that is up from $12.97 billion in the year-ago period in the fourth quarter, December 31. Facebook now has a monthly active user base of 2.32 billion which is a year on year increase of 9 per cent, with daily active users of 1.52 billion that is an increase of 9 per cent.

Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said, "Our community and business continue to grow. We've fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we're investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect".

The company has reported a revenue of $6.88 billion which amounts to $2.38 a share which is a rise from $1.44 a share in the year-ago period. The complete year revenue stood at $55.8 billion, which is a rise from $40.6 billion in 2017.

There has been an approximate 93 per cent of advertising revenue via mobile advertising up from 89 per cent that was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Facebook said that it has added 1 million daily users in Canada and the US, "We estimate that around 2.7 billion people now use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger each month, and more than 2 billion people use at least one of our family of services every day on average".